It is a problem to manufacture electrical contacts that provide low resistivity, operate in a reliable manner in an environmentally hostile environment, are inexpensive, are long lived, and yet also have a low light reflectivity characteristic. The typical adverse natural environment includes, but is not limited to, corrosion, chemical contamination, extreme temperatures, humidity, rain, dirt, ice, and abrasion.
There are two modes of electrically interconnecting two or more circuit elements together. One mode of electrical interconnection is to hardwire the circuit elements together, which renders the resultant apparatus a unitary structure. The second mode of electrical interconnection is to use one or more electrical contacts to interconnect the circuit elements, thereby enabling the circuit elements to be removably attached to each other and/or to a power source. The electrical contacts are either mounted on mating surfaces of two elements, coming into contact when the two elements are juxtaposed to each other and mechanically forced together, or mounted in connectors, which are electrically tethered to the respective elements via cables, and joined together via locking connector shells which house the respective set of mating electrical contacts and protect the respective sets of contacts from the ambient environment.
The use of electrical contacts mounted on mating surfaces of two elements is optimal for quick connect applications, but these contacts are susceptible to contamination, which degrades performance. The exposed contacts, therefore, must be manufactured from a material that provides low resistivity (such as gold) even when exposed to the hostile ambient environment. However, contacts of this type also create highly reflective surfaces which represent a unique problem in the application of these contacts to military weapons, where camouflage is a paramount concern.
To protect electrical contacts from hostile ambient environmental conditions, such as outdoor applications, the electrical contacts typically are housed in a weatherproof housing, such as a connector shell or a weatherproof sealed box. However, the tethering electrical cable and the connector shell are significantly more expensive than the use of electrical contacts mounted on mating surfaces of two elements, although they provide greater protection from the environment, but are also less convenient for quick connect applications.
Thus, there is presently no electrical contact that can be used in a quick connect application which provides low resistivity, operates in a reliable manner in a hostile ambient environment, is inexpensive, is long lived, and yet also has a low light reflectivity characteristic.